#Amazing Accrington - Winter 2017

FROM ACCRINGTON WELDER...

ACCRINGTON ROSSENDALE COLLEGE

...TO TV STAR!

ENROL NOW

From humble beginnings as a trainee welder of Accrington, Dominic Brunt now plays Paddy Kirk in the critically acclaimed drama series Emmerdale. Dominic took the time to chat with us over lunch at Roots Restaurant in Accrington and Rossendale College. He reassured us that he hasn’t let fame go to his head.

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“You don’t have to be a show off to be an actor, you just don’t. That’s been an important lesson for me. I’m not a raconteur. I won’t get up and start telling stories at a party. I’m shy really. It’s totally different when you’re acting and you’re just in front of two boom operators.” Aer leaving school Dominic trained as a welder for Hargreaves Sheet Metal, making metal panels to fit onto Accrington buses. “I think if I ever stopped acting I’d go back to being a welder.” He began his formal training studying a BTEC in Performing Arts at Accrington and Rossendale College. “The drama teacher there, Martin Cosgrif, had a knack of geing people into drama school. He turned me from a welder into an actor. He told us on the first day that we should look at it like a job. We had other people turning up to acting classes thinking it was like X-Factor so he used to start offwith intensive breathing exercises and Shakespeare which chased them away. For the rest of us, we were obsessed with acting.” Dominic will always be grateful for his education at Accrington and Rossendale College. “I trained as a welder here and then as an actor so the college has done brilliant things for me.” He went on to join the alumni of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, whose previous students include Daniel Day Lewis and Patrick Stewart. This was also where he met his wife Joanne. Since 1997, Dominic has been best known for his role as Paddy Kirk in Emmerdale, a character who has changed drastically in recent years from loveable bumbling vet to absconding love-rat. He admits that he initially had his reservations about the changes but Dominic now enjoys the role even more. “I like the fact that he’s flawed. I think he has three dimensions and he’s not a saint. He’s as flawed as everybody else. It would have been dull for him to have been there for this long and still be this upstanding person who was a pillar of society.” We asked Dominic if he was ever tempted to ask the writers to alter the storylines. “No. I don’t think we should or every actor would be going up and asking ‘can I have a storyline, can I have an affair, can I be ill? ’I just leave it to them, that’s their job and they’re brilliant at it.” The critics certainly think so. Emmerdale has been enormously successful, particularly in recent years, with the showwinning the Best Continuing Drama Series at the British Television Awards 2017. “It’s been amazing because we’ve always believed in it so it’s been great to be vindicated. About five years ago we were on top form under a producer called Gavin Blyth. The writers had matured and we went from

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Top: Dominic back to his ‘Roots’ at Accrington and Rossendale College. Right: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where Dominic honed his acting skills and met his wife Joanne.

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